Weed guard



J. NELSON July 2, 1940.

WEED GUARD Filed Jan. 3, 1940 Patented July 2, 1940 UNITED STATES,

PATENT OFFICE 2,206,486 WEED GUARD John Nelson, Chicago, 111.

Application January 3,

3 Claims.

My invention relates to weed guards for artificial fish lures, and moreparticularly as applied to the type of lure covered in my pending patentapplication under Serial No. 283,676, filed July 10, 1939, and my mainobject is to provide means for attaching the weed guard securely.

Another object of the invention is to employ a balancing plate forming apart of the fish lure in my above-mentioned patent application foranchoring or looking the weed guard against lateral vibration ordisplacement.

An additional object of the invention is to apply the weed guard to thelure in a simple and efiicient manner.

which may suggest themselves from the description to follow, a betterunderstanding of the invention may be had by reference to theaccompanying drawing, in which- Fig. 1 is a top plan view of the fishlure embodying the improved weed guard;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section; and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing the formation of the balancingplate forming a part of the fish lure.

While weed guards have been applied and secured in various ways onartificial fish lures, few of these have employed positive means to lockthe guard in position. Such of these as have come to my attention areinvolved or re quire special treatment of or work on the fish lure,making the same more expensive to produce. It has therefore been myintention to provide an anchor or look for the weed guard which involvesa minimum change in the lure and requires no additional parts or work toadapt the same for the improvement.

In accordance with the foregoing specific reference to the drawingdenotes the lure covered in my said application at ID, the latter havinga relatively thick balancing plate l8 soldered or otherwise permanentlysecured to it. The plate I8 is formed with an opening 24 having aconstricted rear entrance at 2411.

The lure Ill is struck up with a tubular extension 25 in the center ofthe opening 24 around which the eye 23 of a fish hook 2D is placed, theextrusion being internally threaded to receive a screw 26 whose head 21bears down on the eye 23 to secure the same to the lure.

As described above, the construction follows 23 of the fish hook 20 doesnot seat on the lure 10 to be clamped by the screw head 21, but on Withthe above objects in view and any others 1940, Serial No. 312,277

the eye 35 forming one end of a rearwardly directed weed guard 36. Thelatter takes a hook type of bend 31 in order to form the eye 35, and inorder to accommodate the bend 31 the balancing plate 38 is formed with anarrow slot 5 38 constituting a forward extension of the opening 24. Theslot 38 is only of a width to slidably receive the lower part of thebend 31, so that the weed guard becomes locked from deviation in alateral direction. 10'

It is apparent that the embodiment of the bend 31 in the weed guardrenders the same longer and therefore more efiective than one directlyattached to the lure. Also, the bend is in the nature of a spring torender the guard 15 more flexible to withstand pulling or lateralstrains, which would tend to distort or break the guard if it weredirectly attached. Further,

, where a relatively light wire is necessary for a directly attachedguard in order to provide some flexibility in it, a guard of a heavierand more durable gauge can be used in the improved lure by virtue of thespring bend 38.

It will be further evident that I have utilized the relatively thick andvery solid balancing plate It of the fish lure'to provide a receptaclefor the weed guard bend 31 in a manner to prevent the lateral deviationor departure of the weed guard in case the screw head 2'! should throughvibration or other causes loosen its hold on the base of the weed guard.Further, I utilize the same extrusion 25 for securing both the base ofthe weed guard and that of the fish hook 28. Further, this mode offastening and the free entrance to the slot 38 enables me to easilyremove the screw 26 and take the weed guard out of the assembly in casethe lure is to be used where there are no weeds, the fish hook beingquickly replaceable, and the height of the extrusion 25 calculated toagain permit the screw head to form a clamp for the eye 23, as in mypending application. In conclusion, it will be evident that thebalancing plate may be stamped with the slot 38 during the sameoperation as for the opening 24, so that no additional work and no extraparts are required to embody the improvement in the fish lure.

While I have described the improvement along specific lines, variousminor changes and refinements may be made without departing from itsprinciple, and I desire to consider all such changes and refinements ascoming within the scope and spirit of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination with a spoon-type artificial fish lure, and a weedguard secured with one of its ends over the frontal portion of the lure;of an upward enlargement of said frontal portion forming a lock inrespect to an intermediate portion of said guard to retain the latteragainst lateral deviation in the event that looseness develops in itsfastening.

2. The combination with a spoon-type artificial fish lure, of a weedguard-secured with one of its ends over the frontal portion of the lure.the weed guard having a forwardly-directed hook-shaped portion beforesuch end, and an upward enlargement of said frontal portion forming alock in respect to said hook-shaped

